Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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4 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD in medicine, he was elected President of the Classical Association of Great Britain, whose members are the most learned scholars in Latin and in Greek in those islands where those studies have flourished for ages. His Presi- dential address amazed them all by a scholarship both wide and deep. He re-introduced and developed the system of teaching medicine by the bedside of the patient, and nearly every Medical School in the world to-day owes much to his imagination and his work. He has been called the family physician of three nations, and no man in his time did as much to unite the hearts and minds of that Trinity of Nations which means more to us than any others, Canada. Britain and the United States of America. In many far places he always carried with him something of the neigh- borly kindliness of the Canadian frontier, something of the healing strength and warmth of the Canadian sun, something of the clean freshness of the Canadian air that sweeps and sweetens the dusty and the musty places. On his seventieth birthday a book of tributes was issued in his Salutation. After his death a memorial volume of almost 1,000 pages was published in England. It con- tained eloquent words spoken by famous men and humble men from Canada. the United States, Britain, France, Germany and China-all breathing a love for the man and an admiration for his life and work. In the month of July of this year, one of the great American Medical Journals devoted its whole issue to his memory on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. I often think that Britain and the United States almost shame us in our forgetfulness, by their devotion to this Canadian. There are monuments commemorating Osler at McGill, Johns Hopkins and Oxford. His name lives on the lips and in the hearts of countless doctors, nurses, and ordinary men and women who came into the benediction of his presence or have other wistful reasons to cherish his memory. No- body who ever met him ever forgot him, and how many

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 3 will remember, a Prefect and your first Head Boy. If you had known him when he was a famous man, I think you would have felt that even then he Wasyour schoolfellow. For wherever he went and whatever he did, he never let his heart and mind grow old, or his hopes grow dim. He carried his Ontario boyhood with him into all the world. And I like to think that in a real sense he is still your schoolfellow and that the memory of his goodness and greatness is now, and will be for ever, a blessing to this place. It is going to be very hard for me to speak about his life within a small space of time, and especially in the presence of many who knew him well, and of some who belong to his family and can proudly claim him as a kins- man. No Canadian who ever lived had a clearer title to greatness, or a richer life than Osler, or touched the world of men at more points and with greater distinction. He studied at Toronto, McGill and in Europe. He became the most famous professor of his day in the Medical Schools of McGill, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins and Oxford. He was the author of the greatest medical book of his time, and one of the greatest of all times, The Principles and Practice of Medicine . It was translated into many languages, including Chinese and Japanese. He was honoured by degrees from most of the leading Universities of the civilized world. He was a Fellow of many learned societies. He has been acclaimed as the greatest medical teacher of his age and one of the most inspiring in the Whole history of medicine. Partly because of Osler's books, his example, and his Work, John D. Rockefeller turned his mind and devoted his fortune to medical re- search and the relief of suffering. One might almost say that the Rockefeller Institute had its far beginning in Trinity College School. Osler wrote many books, gave many memorable addresses and published many pamphlets. They number in all nearly 800. Although he was trained in science and

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 5 men and women I, myself, have known, whose proudest reminiscence has been that they once talked with Dr. Osler! After his death, the Medical Society of Maryland placed this record in the Minutes of its proceedings: Died on 29th December, 1919, at Oxford, WILLIAM OSLER, Baronet. Physician, teacher, guide, lover of his fellow man. Noble exemplar of charity and tolerance and tem- perance and work and loveg Untiring stimulator and generous benefactor of this Societyg Whose sparkling wit and genial, subtle humour smoothed the rough way of life for so many weary spiritsg Whose presence banished dis- cord and suspicion. The gap which his absence leaves among us will forever be warmed by the glow of that all- embracing love which radiated from his presence like ia halo of light, and brought to all about him something of the peace that now is his. That was the boy whom this School sent out to serve humanity. He was born, you will remember, in what was then the little Ontario village of Bondhead. Perhaps the won- derful heroism of the last war, in which this School played so noble a part, served to remind us that there are always somebodies in the streets where the nobodies live. And no one knows from what community or household a great man will come. Certainly Bondhead should be a proud little town. And for this, among other reasons. The two Canadians whose names are most honoured and famous throughout the world for the precious gifts which they brought to the comfort and healing of suffering mankind are Dr. William Osler and Dr. Frederick Banting. Bantingks father was also born in Bondhead, in the same month and in the same year as Osler. Truly, July 1849 was a great month for Bondhead, for Canada, and I think for the world. I have not time to tell you of Osler's father and mother and their family. When his mother was 100 years old, the Canadian House of Commons passed a resolution con- gratulating her on her own wonderful life and on the fame of four of her sons, one of whom was a leading man of